The moon loomed over Hyrule field as Link made his way back to the Forest on Epona. The sturdy young horse raced across the grass as if she were gliding over it. Soon enough they arrived at the Forest entrance, Link slid off Epona petting her nose as a thank you for getting him home. He noticed the pale blue of the Zora carriage and let out a long sigh since that meant Ruto would be there. Link passed the carriage onto the old rope bridge. He stopped for a second to think about all the memories that bridge brought flooding back. One of those memories was the day he was told to leave the Forest and to venture into Hyrule to find a princess, Saria had given him his very first ocarina that same day and he had never forgotten it. Thinking of Saria, Link wondered how she would react to the news that her locket had been stolen by a mysterious shadow, hopefully she wouldn't be too upset.
The village was silent as Link entered, he spotted a light on in Mido's house so decided to go see who was in. Link walked through the door to see Mido lying on his bed with a bandage around his foot, Ruto fussing over Mido and Saria sat leaning an elbow on one of the tables. As soon as she saw Link, Saria leapt up and welcomed him with a hug. Link gratefully returned it as Saria went to exit the house.
"I'll be back a bit later, I've got some things to sort out in the temple." She waved to the other three then disappeared into the night. Link let out a big sigh then slumped down onto one of the chairs putting his face in his hands. Ruto stopped what she had been doing and turned to face him.
"What's up Link? Are you annoyed that Saria has work to do? He lifted his face out of his hands slowly shaking his head not believing that he had just been ambushed by a feeble looking shadow figure.
"I think Ganondorf is back." Link managed to blurt out standing up again and pacing the room. Ruto dropped some of the cream she had been using for Mido's foot giving Link a funny stare.
"Don't be stupid Link! There's no way he could get back, not after the last thrashing you gave him."
Link froze as he thought about the situation, Ruto was right it couldn't have been Ganondorf, but if it wasn't someone involved with him who could it have been?
"It flew out of the shop veiled in shadow carrying the locket, then attacked me for trying to retrieve what it had stolen." Link mumbled to himself sitting back down since if he had done any more pacing he would have worn the carpet out. Ruto overheard this raising an eyebrow at the description of the attacker.
"I do believe you've been done over by the shadow sisters Link." She then continued to explain what she had meant by 'shadow sisters'
"They do actually serve Ganondorf, you see they are the nieces of Alfos Red, they have the power to cover themselves in shadow so no one can see who they truly are. Saffron, the eldest of the two is usually the one creating all their evil plans while Ebony, her younger sister, who probably attacked you is the one who carries out all of her sister's errands." Ruto finished there to see Link's stunned reaction, he was more surprised that Ruto knew all this than the fact that Ganondorf had finally and unfortunately returned, even if it wasn't he himself causing the trouble. Ruto decided to carry on since Link didn't seem to be about to say anything.
"Alfos taught them most of the black magic that he knew too, hmm they must have wanted the locket so it wouldn't be able to be used against them." Link let out a loud groan covering his face with his hands again mumbling about unwanted annoyances. Ruto stood up stretching her arms up behind her head thinking she had better be heading back home with the milk, her father was probably going mad right about now. Link also stood grabbing Ruto's arm as she made to leave.
"Please don't tell Saria about the locket, maybe I can get it back and not have to worry her at all." Ruto narrowed her eyes shaking her head at the same time thinking there was no way Link couldn't tell Saria but she reluctantly agreed to keep quiet for now.
Screams of pain could be heard echoing through the caves of Death Mountain followed by a shrill laugh that also echoed through the rocky walls. Saffron smiled to herself as she entered the cave that she and her sister had been staying in, Ebony was relaxing on a large flat rock swinging the locket back and forth in front of her eyes.
"Simple things amuse simple minds." Saffron smirked snatching the locket away from her sister. "But some simple things are not toys!" She added turning around to put the locket in a safe secure place. Ebony snorted brushing away some loose hair in front of her face then looking towards her sister.
"So who were you torturing tonight?" Saffron slammed down the lid of the box that held the locket then smiled to herself relishing in the memories of torturing innocent souls. She span around to face her sister then clicked a finger which summoned a floating object to appear in the room. Ebony rubbed her eyes to realise that the object was a skull and she shuddered at the sight.
"Yes, that's right little sister, there is one of the many skulls I have taken of those who have betrayed Ganondorf, but one day I will have the greatest skull of all, the skull of the Hero of Time!" The younger girl's eyes lit up at this idea but then dimmed again.
"How do you plan on luring him to us Saffron?" Ebony inquired as she sat up crossing her legs on the rock. An evil gleam shone in Saffron's eyes as she pictured her brilliant plan in action.
"We have his girlfriend's precious locket remember? He's bound to come looking for us sooner or later. Uncle Alfos went wrong when he planned to take out the Sages before Link, I say why not take out Link and the rest will follow!" Ebony sighed wondering if this time one of Saffron's plans would actually work.
The breeze ruffled through the trees causing some leaves to tumble sleepily to the ground. Small golden sprites glided on the breeze spinning around now and again, usually they would have been moving along to the songs of the woods but at that time there was no song. The reason for no song was because there was no one awake to play one. Saria lay sleeping against the old tree stump which she had fallen asleep by the night before, so much for doing work in the temple. She was unaware of the little golden fairy that came fluttering into the meadow in a bit of a hurry. Saria showed no signs of waking up so the fairy flew over to her sprinkling a trail of golden dust onto her face. The young Sage immediately began to cough as the dust went up her nose, she rubbed her eyes then looked up.
"Oh, you're one of the Deku Tree's fairies aren't you?" Saria asked pushing herself up from where she had been lying. The fairy floated down to her eye level and landed on her shoulder.
""Yes I am and I was here to inform you that he is looking for you." Saria looked a bit puzzled wondering why the Deku Tree wanted to see her. She shrugged it off and went with the fairy into the village and through to the old Tree's meadow.
The breeze had now died down creating a calm still atmosphere. Entering the meadow the Deku Tree looked as wise as ever, sprites and fairies danced around it producing a sea of golden and silver colours. Saria walked down to the grassy slope then stopped awaiting for the Tree's words.
"Ah, Saria thou has come, I was hoping thou would know why I had called for thee."
Saria closed her eyes trying to think of anything that had happened recently but nothing came to mind. The Deku Tree continued.
"I was going to tell you both together, but since I can not find Link it shall have to be just us. It is now time."
Saria stood frozen still wondering what this conversation was about, her eyes suddenly widened when she realised what 'it is now time' meant.
"What? It can't be time already!" She replied raising her voice a little.
"I'm afraid it is my dear, now I will give you a few days to say your goodbyes then you will no longer be a Kokiri."
Saria slowly fell to the floor a few tears trailing down her cheeks.
Hooves clattered quickly along the dusty path causing stray cuckoos to flap out of the way.
"Wow, that's your best time yet Link!" Malon yelled clicking the stopwatch while running over to congratulate Link on his new obstacle course record. He grinned as he slid off Epona landing neatly on the grass sliding a hand through his strawberry blonde hair.
"You should enter into the annual horse races, I'm sure you could win with ease." Malon suggested as she took Epona's reins in one hand. "You wouldn't have to travel very far either since this year it's being held right here."
Link gradually began to take more interest in the idea if it was going to be closer to home.
"Let me guess, people from all over the world will be coming to this event, hmm last time I entered one of those we had odd balls like Alfos Red skulking about." Malon giggled a little too much at this which Link found rather unsettling. He decided he had better be heading back to the forest before Malon began Zelda's riding lesson when she arrived, he didn't want to get dragged into helping Zelda get up off the ground every time she fell off the horse. He swiftly leapt back onto Epona and rode out of the ranch waving to Malon as he did so.
He quietly dismounted Epona by the entrance to the woods giving her a soft pet on the nose before he sent her home. As soon as he appeared in the village a cluster of fairies surrounded him guiding him in the direction of the Lost Woods. He didn't argue with them so he let them lead him up into the woods and through to the meadow. Again there was no music, only the sound of faint crying coming from the back of the meadow. Saria sat curled up on the old tree stump facing the temple. Link ran over and sat beside her.
"Hey what's the matter?" He asked putting an arm around her pulling her closer.
"It's time to go." She replied leaning against him as he put both his arms round her. Link had a puzzled expression on his face until he figured out about what she was talking about. He didn't really know what to say, they had both known that the day they needed to leave the forest would come, but time flew by faster than either had expected. They sat in silence for the next few minutes thinking about the days ahead.
"Don't worry, I'll look after you." Link said out of nowhere but didn't receive an answer since Saria had fallen asleep in his arms. He smiled as he stood up and carried her home.
Mido who had also been told that day that he only had a few more days in the village was leaning by the entrance to his house watching the activities of the night. His thoughts were interrupted by Lori, one of the Know it all brothers coming up to him. Even though he was now only half the height of Mido he still managed to make himself look important.
"So I take it you will be assigning a new leader to the village?" Lori enquired looking eagerly up at Mido. Mido was about to reply when he was interrupted again this time by footsteps coming down from the Lost Woods. He leaned further out of his door and saw that it was Link who had Saria in his arms heading to her house.
"Goddesses I wish that was me." Mido thought to himself, then he nearly fell over at what he had just thought.
"What am I thinking? I'm meant to be in love with Ruto, did my feelings ever really vanish for Saria?" Lori stood watching Mido's face knowing that he was deep in thought, he looked to where Mido had been staring then realised what it was all about.
"You still have feelings for Saria don't you?" Lori shocked Mido by that question worrying that he had been speaking out loud by mistake. He decided it was best to change the subject.
"I think you should be the new leader! And now if you'll excuse me I need to pack." Mido pushed the small boy out the door dragging the curtain over behind him. He collapsed onto his bed a whirlpool of thoughts spinning through his head.
Link gently put Saria down on her bed, pulled the blankets over her then made to leave.
"Link?" She asked sitting up pushing the covers off a little.
He span around surprised that she had woken up and walked back over to her.
"Yeah?" He asked kneeling down beside the bed.
"I was just wondering if my locket was ready?" Link froze at that question, he had totally forgotten that the locket had been stolen.
"Um no not yet, the jeweller said it wouldn't be long though." He hated lying to her but he didn't want to tell her anything more that would upset her again that day. After saying goodnight he stepped out of Saria's house and made his way to his own. As he approached the ladder he caught a quick glimpse of a shadowy figure flying from the Lost Woods, something suddenly felt very uneasy. He dashed into his house, grabbed his sword and headed towards the Lost Woods.
A/N: Please review if you would.